So several years ago, Wildman made a presentation to the National Trail Parks and Recreation District encouraging them to build an ice rink and later served on a committee that studied the arena’s design.
Last month the National Trail board selected the Memorial Hall site, 300 W. Main St., for the $5.5 million arena.
Now that a site has been selected for a family ice arena, Wildman is excited.
“I think it will be popular,” she said.
The next step is for National Trail to purchase the property from Healthy City Investments and get to work on construction drawings.
National Trail CEO Tim Smith said the construction time line should be clearer in a few months after those first steps are done.
National Trail hired Canlan Ice Sports Corp., one of the largest ice arena operators in North America, to study the market and develop a business plan.
Based on conservative projections, its 2007 report showed the rink could be profitable within five years.
Smith believes it could be making money sooner and that ultimately it will struggle to find ice time for all the different programs.
“We believe we have great opportunity for success,” he said.
Rink hopes to be family draw
Pascal Chevrette grew up playing hockey in Montreal, and now his two sons play in Columbus and he’s in an adult league in Kettering.
He’s looking forward to National Trail Parks and Recreation District’s ice arena getting under construction and opening.
“As a family, you can get on the ice all together,” said Chevrette, now of Springfield. “You don’t have to be a perfect skater. It’s pretty easy to learn.”
Springfield isn’t Canada, though, where every child grows up learning to skate. So to make National Trail’s ice arena successful, district CEO Tim Smith knows they will have to educate the market.
A Canlan Ice Sports Corp. study in 2007 found the ice arena could be profitable within five years, which Smith called a conservative estimate.
“There’s opportunity to do even more to tighten it down and get there even quicker,” he said.
The study also found that National Trail will have to use grass-roots efforts to generate interest in ice sports.
The arena will add to the district’s activities for families, Smith said, and add something in winter, often a downtime for recreation and other events citywide.
“We’re going into an area that’s untapped ... Part of what we believe we’re about is to bring new and exciting opportunities. It’s just not softball anymore,” Smith said.
Project history
The ice arena is the last major portion of a $17 million capital campaign that also included the Carleton Davidson Stadium, Splash Zone Family Aquatics Center and several smaller projects like the skate park.
A combination of private donations, public dollars and a one-year, half-cent sales tax paid for the campaign.
The district made a commitment to building an ice arena when it raised the money, Smith said, and wants to keep its word.
The district has faced financial woes in recent years as four levy attempts have failed. But the capital dollars can’t be used for daily operations and the ice rink is intended to be self-sufficient.
“We made a commitment to the community to complete these flagship projects,” he said.
The rink was to have been built earlier, but a group of surgeons purchased the rink’s first site, 100 W. Main St., and it is now Ohio Valley Medical Center. That left National Trail to find a new location.
The search narrowed it down to two sites, Memorial Hall and Metallic Casket. The board selected Memorial Hall last month after an architect’s study found that the Metallic Casket building was too small to hold a full sheet of ice.
The next steps include buying the property, selecting a firm for construction drawings and then going over the architect’s concept to bring it in line with the total project budget of $5.5 million. The current proposal is about $800,000 over budget.
The cost estimates are conservative, Smith said, and the current economy makes for attractive bids.
“You always have to work it and trim things or find more efficiencies,” Smith said.
The plan calls for a masonry exterior to complement the other buildings downtown. No decision has been made yet on if the facade of Memorial Hall will be incorporated into the arena’s design on site or if it will be moved elsewhere such as to Veterans Park.
Smith wants to see the project move forward quickly now that a site has been selected, but will have a better idea of a construction time line in a few months.
Mayor Warren Copeland knows that some people might wonder why the district wants to build an ice rink because he had the same reaction himself initially.
He checked out other communities, including his hometown in Rock Island/Moline, Ill., a similar community to Springfield. The ice rink there has become a major community resource, Copeland said, leading him to reconsider his first reaction.
“It turns out there is a significant demand for that kind of recreation,” he said.
The arena should provide additional recreational opportunities, Copeland said, and a boost to downtown.
“It will be a nice, attractive feature in the downtown area and that’s a part of the rebirth of downtown that’s going on right now,” he said.
More than hockey
Rinks offer a whole bevy of ice sports and activities — skating lessons, men’s and women’s hockey, figure skating, synchronized skating, broomball, open skating, birthday parties and more.
In the summer, the space can be used for meetings, demonstrations or other recreation programs.
“It’s not just the traditional young boys playing hockey ... It gets the whole gamut,” Smith said.
Angie Riviello agreed. She’s the ice arena supervisor for Kettering and its municipal arena.
The arena usually sees between 75,000 to 100,000 users annually and during prime season is booked from 5 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. on some nights.
“It gets a tremendous amount of use,” she said.
Kettering hosts a figure skating club, synchronized skating, youth, adult and women’s hockey teams, lessons, open skates, broomball and more.
The hard time to fill the rink is during the day, Riviello said.
The Kettering arena employs one full-time and about 40 part-time workers.
It aims to be self-sufficient. Its annual budget is about $600,000. The budget had been down in 2009, but Riviello said attendance was up 68 percent in December, so she’s hopeful that will help the center end the year in the black.
“The market does exist and if you can bring it affordably and let people try it, it’s a great thing,” she said.
Over in Troy and its municipal Hobart Arena, it sees 250,000 to 300,000 users annually for all events, including concerts and cheerleading competitions, said Ken Siler, director of recreation and arena manager.
Its annual budget is about $1 million, which includes about a $300,000 to $350,000 subsidy from the city’s general fund.
The recreation department has nine full-time employees that work on all of its programs, including Hobart, and about 70 part-time and seasonal arena workers.
Hobart hosts a similar wide range of ice programs, including high school hockey, and its ice time is usually filled during the winter evening hours and weekends as well.
“The venue itself creates a significant economic impact to the community,” Siler said.
Sparks an interest
To attract more users, Hobart offers some free sessions and clinics to let people try ice skating and hockey.
“It does take some active promoting and marketing for it to be successful,” Siler said.
Both Riviello and Siler said they see a cycle of interest in ice sports before and after the Olympics.
“That sparks an interest for people,” she said.
National Trail will have to educate the market on ice sports, Smith said, like it did with soccer, skate parks and trails.
“There’s a learning curve of how to use it and why it’s there,” he said.
That’s done through marketing, lessons, and creating leagues and start-up programs.
It also hopes to capture some of the people that are leaving town to go to other rinks, Smith said.
Wittenberg University has had a club hockey team off and on for several years, spokesman Ryan Maurer said.
The group has used Kettering’s arena before, he said, and having a Springfield rink would likely be a benefit to them.
He could see a lot of students using a downtown ice rink.
“Anything that increases opportunity is a good thing,” Maurer said.
National Trail plans to involve the community in deciding what programming to offer at the ice arena.
“We see no boundaries on how we can engage the whole family,” Smith said.
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